For the first time China overtook Japan to rank the second in terms of vessel order book tonnages, a major shipbuilding index and took up 28 per cent share of the world market, the London-based Clarkson, a firm specialising in the global shipbuilding market analysis, said.

China's shipbuilding industry scored an output value of $13.4 billion in the first six months, a rise of 48 per cent over the same period last year, according to statistics issued by the management office for shipbuilding industry under the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence (CSTIND).

The aggregate profits reaped by shipbuilding manufactures more than doubled to reach $842.1 million, Xinhua news agency reported. Ship production has been increasing by more than 40 per cent annually in recent years, as its low labour cost kept attracting more orders, analysts said.

The exported ships take up 83 per cent of the ship output in China and China is exporting to 128 countries and regions, with Singapore, Germany and Hong Kong as its major importers, the CSTIND said.